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Land allotment case: CBI recovers cash worth around Rs 1 crore
The allotments were made allegedly during the stint of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s stint as HUDA chairman in 2012 according to CBI’s first information report (FIR) registered last week.
The CBI has recovered cash worth around Rs 1 crore during searches conducted on the premises of four beneficiaries of allegedly fraudulent allotment of 14 industrial plots in Haryana’s Panchkula.
The allotments were made allegedly during the stint of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as HUDA chairman in 2012 according to CBI’s first information report (FIR) registered last week.
The agency’s FIR said a key file -- on appraisal or evaluation of applicants for the allotments -- was missing from the HUDA office. The CBI on Saturday said it took over the state police probe into alleged irregularities related to the allotment of 14 plots.
The cash was recovered during searches on the premises of HUDA officials and 13 beneficiaries on Saturday. “Cash worth Rs 85 lakh was recovered from two of the beneficiaries in Panchkula, Rs 6.25 lakh from another beneficiary in the same city and Rs 8 lakh from a beneficiary’s house in Chandigadh,” said a CBI source.
The agency also seized “incriminating allotment-related documents including allotment letters, possession letters, among others,” said the source. It is in the process of assessing the quantum of loss caused to the exchequer by the allotments.
The FIR referred to Hooda indirectly, by naming the post he held as the HUDA chairman, not by his name. It named three other former HUDA senior officials.
The FIR also mentions the “13 beneficiaries”that were allegedly favoured in the allotment. The CBI alleged that HUDA had violated key rules while allotting the land.
